.chocolate fudge cake.

I have a confession to make. I'm a food magazine addict. What's worse is stores ENABLE me by putting these things at the checkout line so while I'm waiting for the checker to scan all my items, I thumb through them. Sometimes a magazine can lure me to buy it from simply the cover. You know what I'm talking about, right?

I have stacks of food magazines in my house. They clutter my cookbook shelf, they clutter my bedroom. I don't want to pack them away because I won't have easy access to them. I really need to go through and pull the recipes I continue to go to time and time again and put them in my family cookbook. (mental note: make a blog entry in the near future about the family cookbook.)

A few years ago, one of the magazines I picked up had an amazingly simple, MOIST, and delicious recipe for a chocolate fudge cake. I can whip this cake together in 5 minutes - no joke. That's about how long it takes to open and mix a box of perservatives we like to call a "cake mix". I thought I'd share this recipe because when I go to reach for a chocolate cake recipe, this is the one I go to first.

This only makes 1 cake but can easily be doubled to make two. Enjoy!

1 cup flour
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp. baking cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 stick butter (if you use unsalted butter, add 1/4 tsp salt to the recipe), melted
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup hot water

Preheat oven to 350* F. In a bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt (if you used unsalted butter). Set aside.

In another bowl, mix together the melted butter, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, and water. Pour into the bowl of dry ingredients and stir just until it's incorporated and the batter is smooth. Don't overmix.

Pour batter into a greased 8" or 9" round cake pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from pan and let cool on a wire rack. Once this cake is cool, you can wrap with foil and put in a Ziploc freezer bag and store for future use.

When the cake has cooled, make the ganache.

[(gə-näsh') n. A rich icing made of chocolate and cream heated and stirred together, used also as a filling, as for cakes or pastry. ]

Heat 2 cups cream in a saucepan on medium heat until the tops forms a slight skin. (this is called scalding) Do NOT let the cream boil. Immediately remove from heat and pour over 1 12-oz bag of chocolate chips in a bowl. Let it sit for a minute or two and then stir until the chocolate is completely melted and it makes a nice smooth sauce. If it's too runny, add more chocolate chips, and put on top of a pot filled with an inch of water. Using this double boiler method, heat it so the added chocolate melts.

Put the cooled cake (still on the rack) over a baking sheet. Pour the warm ganache over the cake and smooth with an icing spatula over the top and sides until it is well coated. Place the cake (still on the baking sheet) in the fridge and chill until ganache sets.

When I serve this, I slice and put a hefty dollop of chocolate whipped cream on each serving. To make the whipped cream, start with a pint of cold cream. Using a mixer, whip until the cream begins to form soft peaks. Add 1/4 cup sugar gradually, while still mixing. When firm peaks form, add 1 tsp vanilla and 2 Tbsp cocoa. Mix well.

Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_4dwsrzrkf

.shrimp pasta carbonara.

Simple and delicious.

There's nothing to say about it except that. Two years ago, I went up to Virginia to visit my friends that I missed so dearly. One of my friends let my daughter and I stay with them while we were there. While visiting, she made this dish and I loved it. It has become a favorite here in our home and you know the really nice thing about it? The ingredients are few and are either found in the pantry or freezer.

Here is your shopping list of ingredients:

• Thick cut bacon


• Garlic


• Frozen peas


• Thin spaghetti


• Shrimp (medium to large)


• Eggs


• Parmesan cheese

Cut 5 strips of bacon into 1/2" slices. Mince your garlic. Thaw your shrimp in a mesh strainer using cold water, if frozen. Remove tails/shells if they're still attached. In a bowl, mix together 2 eggs and 1 cup grated parmesan cheese.

Boil your water in a stock pot for the spaghetti. Cook a handful of noodles according to the directions on the package.

While the spaghetti is cooking, fry up the bacon. When it's halfway done, add the garlic and sautee a few minutes. Don't let it burn! Add the shrimp and cook until it turns pink. Don't overcook your shrimp or else it will be tough. Set aside once it's done.

Drain the spaghetti when it's cooked. Return to the pot and dump in the bacon/shrimp/garlic. Add 1 cup frozen peas. Pour on the egg/parmesan mixture. Using tongs, toss everything together in the pot until the egg goes from transparent to opaque. Let the heat of the hot noodles cook the egg. Season with salt and pepper.

Printable version: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_6dzz6hqfb

.french bread.

I have a feeling I am eventually going to need to create a directory for all these recipes I'm posting. Things are bound to get lost!

Tonight we're having pasta carbonara w/ french bread and salad. (I'll post the pasta recipe in the morning.) As a baker, I really do try to make my own breads. We buy loaf bread for sandwiches because we go through too much and with a new baby? Forgetaboutit.

Today I made a nice french loaf for our dinner. Homemade is so much better than store-bought because it's not full of unnecessary additives. If you have 3 hours, I highly encourage you to try out this easy recipe!

FRENCH BREAD (makes 1 loaf)

1 cup warm water
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp yeast

Dissolve the sugar and yeast in a mixing bowl for 10 minutes and yeast is nice and bubbly.

NOTE: Yeast loves sugar and feeds off it... so don't omit this from the recipe.

Using a dough hook attachment, add 1 cup bread flour. At this time, add 1/2 tsp salt. Continue adding flour 1/2 cupfuls at a time until the dough pulls away from the sides and bottom and forms a ball. Knead on a floured surface, working in a little flour until dough is a nice firm ball. Spray mixing bowl with Pam and put dough back in it. Cover and let rise 1 hour or until dough has doubled in size.

NOTE: Never put the salt in direct contact with your yeast. Unlike sugar, salt will KILL your yeast. Not a good thing folks. :)

After dough has risen, punch it down and remove from bowl. Knead for another minute, being careful not to work in too much flour. Now it's time to shape. You can either shape your loaf by hand or with a rolling pin. I use a rolling pin. Don't roll it too much. Then roll it into a loaf shape.

Spray a cookie sheet with Pam and sprinkle the diagonal with cornmeal. Lay french bread on top of the cornmeal. Cover and let rise for 20 minutes.

NOTE: Don't let this over-rise otherwise when you go to brush with eggwash and bake, it will have too much air and will collapse on itself leaving you with a very flat loaf of bread.

Preheat your oven to 425*F. Put your oven rack as low as it will go. When the dough has doubled, cut three diagonal slashes across the top (we call it "scoring"), brush with eggwash (1 egg and a little water mixed in), and put into well heated oven. Throw a cup of water directly onto the bottom of the oven and close the door. 15 minutes later, turn the oven down to 350* and bake another 10 minutes. Remove from pan onto cooling rack.

Your bread should have a nice crisp crust and will sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.

.take a moment.

Take a moment to do something fun with the ones you love.

I had to go into town the other day for my 6 week postpartum appointment (which was pointless, btw) and decided since Paige was still on Christmas vacation that I would take her to the zoo. So the girls and I headed over to after my appointment.

Here are a few pictures from our day.

.cinnamon rolls.

When I had the bakery, these cinnamon rolls were a very hot item! We sold a lot of them.

When I first opened, I made them like you traditionally see them... spiral and baked in a muffin pan. They didn't do well really.... but one day I had shoved all the little end pieces in one cup. When it came out of the oven, it looked like this amazing piece of food art. I thought to myself, "How can I duplicate this?" So we played around with it and they went from average to amazing!



I had this recipe posted on my old Upper Crust blog, but I figured I better move it over here because people are always asking for a recipe... and I've actually made more step by step photos to help visualize how these are created.

Making cinnamon rolls from scratch is really quite simple. Often the idea of making bread dough scares people off, but trust me, it's not as frightening a process as you might think. It just requires patience and a little understanding of how bread works!

I highly suggest, whenever making bread dough, to always use bread flour. What's the difference, you ask? Well... it's all about gluten, which gives your dough elasticity..which is what you want with bread as it makes your dough rise the way it's supposed to. All-purpose flour is your middle of the road flour. It has an average gluten count. Whole wheat flour (true 100% wheat flour, not the enriched stuff) has virtually no gluten, which is why it's so hard to get it to rise and why it's so heavy. Bread flour is VERY glutenous.

You also want to make sure you don't use too much salt, EVER when making bread. It will destroy the yeast in your bread and leave you with a lump of dough that won't rise and be hard as rock. You also want to make sure you don't use too much flour. If your dough is "tight", it won't rise properly.

So, now that you have a little understanding, here's the recipe for my cinnamon rolls!


2 cups milk heated in the microwave for 3-4 minutes
2 sticks butter (1 cup)
1/3 cup sugar

Pour heated milk over the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. Allow the milk to melt the butter as much as possible. When you can stick your finger in the milk without it getting 3rd degree burns (HA!), it's safe to put your yeast in. Spoon in 4 1/2 tsp yeast and let it "proof" for about 10 minutes until it's dissolved and nice and bubbly. If your yeast doesn't get bubbly and grow, it's dead and you'll need to start over with new yeast.

After the yeast proofs, add 3 eggs and 3 cups bread flour. Mix until the eggs are incorporated. (NOTE: I use a Kitchen Aid mixer with a dough hook attachment once I get to this stage. Makes the process a lot easier.)

Add 1 tsp salt. Continue to add bread flour, one cup at a time until the dough begins to firm up and pull together into a ball. When the dough is no longer sticky, remove from the mixing bowl and onto a floured counter. Knead your dough for a few minutes working in a little more flour. Remember.. dont' work in too much flour! Use Pam cooking spray to coat the mixing bowl (don't worry about using a clean bowl, you'll just give yourself another bowl to clean) and put the dough in it. Cover with a towel and let rise in a warm place for an hour or until the dough is double in size.

Punch the dough down and divide in half. Roll the dough out using a rolling pin. Melt half stick of butter in the microwave and then spread over the entire surface of the dough. Sprinkle generously with cinnamon and sugar (I use a LOT of cinnamon). Roll tight into a tube shape, then slice into approx. 1" pieces.

Put two slices in each muffin cup (I use texas-sized muffin pans because I like em big!) and then taking the tails of each slice of dough, I twist around and then tuck back into the pan.

Once you've filled up all your muffin pans and used up the dough, cover and let rise until about double in size. Bake in a preheated 375* oven until the rolls are nice and brown. Remove from oven and let cool in the pan. Frost with cream cheese frosting.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:

1/2 stick butter
1 8oz pkg cream cheese
6 cups powdered sugar
milk

Cream the butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Slowly add powdered sugar, alternating with some milk until you get desired consistency.

Printable version: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dg2vfjqm_154cr9s7ff6

.start fresh.

A new year calls for a new beginning.

2007 brought so many blessings: a bakery, a baby, new friends...

I opened my bakery in November 2006. It was something I had always dreamt of doing and this sleepy town was the perfect place to do it without worrying about being horribly busy.

In March, I started feeling really worn out. Tired. One of my employees suggested I take a pregnancy test (which I laughed at, by the way!) and sure enough it came up positive. I guess God had other plans for me. I decided to sell the bakery because I didn't want to have to ever choose between the bakery or the baby. I couldn't do both.


November 24, Perry made her debut into this world and turned our little family of three into a family of four.

It's been an adjustment for all of us but we sure love having her in our lives.

Paige adores her.
Momma feeds, bathes, changes, and entertains her.
Daddy dotes on her.

We are truly blessed.

New beginnings.

This blog is a new beginning. Now that I am bakery free and don't scrapbook as much, I feel having two separate blogs is more than I really need. I want to make this the place to come for fun, food recipes, ideas, and tips, and also scrapbooking or craft projects I'm working on.

So cozy up and make yourself at home. I'm glad to have you here.